The Pursuit of Wholeness

Our society tells us the key to happiness and fulfillment is in getting more and more. To be happy, we need to get more attention, affection, affluence, acclaim, more, more, more. This message has been preached to us since we were infants and we never were weaned off of it.

What has this message produced? A society of broken people. We are promised that more would lead to joy and happiness but somewhere along the way we realized it was not the case. A person gets everything their heart desires and yet they feel empty. We look at a person like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton and see that excess does not produce happiness. If riches provided happiness then the richest people in the world would be the happiest people in the world, but we know that is not true.

What we fail to realize is the depth of our own richness. A person living in the United States is one of the truly blessed and rich in the world, and yet we are not fulfilled. The U.S. probably has more people in therapy or counseling than any other nation. School shooting are on the rise. Teen suicide rates are up, and a recent poll found that 1 in 5 teens have seriously contemplated ending their own life. We get richer and richer but instead of getting feeling better inside, we feel worse.

What is the cure to this madness? To move from brokenness to wholeness. What is wholeness and what does it look like? Very simply, a whole person gives more than they receive. That may seem simple, but I promise you it is harder than it sounds.

Let's begin the journey this week. Let's seek to give more than we take in. Find a way this week to give of yourself.